Tease
by e-ko2
Summary: Upon meeting, Zack and Tifa hit it off. Cloud, on the other hand, needs a little warming up... [ZxTxC]


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Tease – Part I

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Rating: R

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Category: Romance

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Disclaimer: Squaresoft – 'nough said.

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Characters: Zack x Tifa x Cloud

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Author Note: I'm a deluded pervert in need of release. Yep, it seems both boys will be receiving a little TLC from the girl. Sick? Well, hit the back button you fool.

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Etc.: Nothing really happens here. Simply an introduction for the rest of the heated (pun intended) chapters. So there.

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The blue-eyed blonde stared impassively at the night sky, which was an unusual faded blue mottled with infinite specks of moondust; it had no effect on him. Ever since his start of Soldier training, he received the odd end of the stick, learning to feel callous towards everything he came across. The ideal Soldier learned to shut themselves down mentally as emotions were customarily the downfall of men. Unusually, however, he found that stargazing was mildly tranquil, something he thought would never happen. He was now eighteen and a bit of a lackluster… no; he was _definitely_ not much fond of the world. All in all, nothing was really _worth_ living for.

The 'Great Sephiroth' had lectured him on that, making careful to jam the idea thoroughly into his already spellbound brain. Emotions make a man weak, he said. Emotions would be the destruction of mankind, he continued. True, their general was a little, if not a lot, bizarre but was it not the same attribute that the women found oddly irresistible? Whatever the case, he had extraordinary teaching skills when it came to the mind.

He was roughly shaken from his engaging reflection when he remembered that the air was quite humid and dry; he was still dressed in his funny-looking, _purple_ training uniform. He sat up, the blankets pooling around his waist, and removed his shirt in one fluid motion, his torso now completely bare. He dropped his head down atop his pillow and sighed. He was completely worn out, devoid of any excess energy he probably would have had as a kid even with the entire workout he had to endure. Sephiroth had forced them to run five miles, which was nothing in comparison to their normal routine. Then they, the trainees, sparred with each other until the opponent fell, and they ran again.

Every day was anything but entertaining.

The youth closed his eyes and inhaled the sweet scent of pine from the trees growing outside the barracks. He scrunched his nose when the familiar odor of sweat reached his proximity. He couldn't much blame his comrades for he was probably sweating like a chocobo in heat as well.

But hadn't they heard of cologne, he thought irritably.

Suddenly, the door to the barracks was opened wide to reveal the ever-buoyant Zack Tazer, drenched in water. Apparently, the clumsy fool had fallen into the lake _again_. No, it wasn't the first time Zack had accidentally fallen into the lake. The man had a short attention span when walking alone. He _needed_ someone to keep him occupied in order for him to avoid any more needless accidents. Unfortunately, when an offer was made to accompany him, he declined it with a jaunty grin and assured the other he would be fine; he _insisted_ that he walk alone or whatever he did that made him prone to mishaps. That always led to bumps on his head, scratched arms, or even soaked to the bone.

The blonde snorted silently. The idiot was an idiot.

"Hey Cloud, you're awake." He said and walked in, slamming the door behind him, heedless of the occupants of the cabin he might wake up. Even through the darkness of the night, he managed to confirm that his friend was conscious due to the glow of his eyes, Mako Eyes as they were now called. You could ask anyone who was in Soldier the colour of their eyes, and they would simply shake their heads and respond with no remorse that they had no colour. They had 'Mako Eyes.'

Despite all that, the man in front of him refused to believe that. He reminded everyone that he had a pale blue and green tint to his wide eyes, not some stupid colour like Mako.

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"Mako isn't even a colour, you jackass" he would say to everyone.

Zack Tazer, in Cloud's opinion, was _the_ jackass.

Zack was in the middle of drying out his jet-black hair when he paused to stare at Cloud who was staring at him bearing no thought in mind. Of course, if anyone else was awake and saw the two friends staring at each other, it would have been interpreted differently. Thank Ifrit everyone was asleep.

"Sephiroth said we're to be dispatched to Nibelheim." Zack said suddenly then resumed to drying out his hair.

"Really?"

"Yeah." He stripped himself in his uniform, leaving him in an attire consisted of only boxers. "Sephiroth wants to investigate the Shinra mansion. Says that there's something he wants to find- Hey," Zack stopped himself mid-sentence as he remembered something. "Doesn't your girlfriend live in Nibelheim?"

"Point being? And she's not my girlfriend." He added.

The man smirked. "Well, well, if she's not your girlfriend…"

"No."

"Well at least _introduce_ me to her."

"Whatever."

"If you don't, I'm eventually bound to meet her. And you know how it works with me." He winked and slipped underneath his thin bed sheets.

Cloud groaned in dismay. How could he have forgotten? His friend was a pervert and, if anything, he would introduce himself to the _only_ girl in town in a unique fashion.

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He doesn't greet women, you clod. He courts _them._

Oh yeah. The man was shameless when it came to the women. Very. And something told him that all gallantry Zack possessed would be very well nonexistent when he met Tifa Lockheart of Nibelheim. She was the 'knockout' in his childhood days and now that she was seventeen (she had always been one year younger than him, he fondly remembered) she was bound to have matured in her female anatomy.

Oh.

And there were the hormones.

Cloud sighed a second time that night and decided to force himself to sleep. If they were being dispatched tomorrow, some interesting things would be happening.

Especially if it concerned Tifa.


End file.
